NatWest claims to be inclusive but its actions are full of prejudice

NatWest is limiting cash says Tim Newark (Image: Shutterstock) Eight in ten Red Wall voters want the legal right to pay with cash in shops, says a recent poll. But NatWest bank is limiting access to cash for many of its customers. Meanwhile, left-wing councils are charging drivers more for using cash to pay for parking, hitting older motorists the most. Voters across battleground constituencies in the Midlands and the North are echoing Nigel Farage’s call for cash to be protected as legal tender. Standing up to a trend demanding cashless transactions only, the Brexiteer is hitting home with his defence of cash because 88 percent of voters polled agree, demanding the right to pay for good or services with cash. Some 19 percent claimed it was now ‘hard’ or ‘very hard’ to pay in shops or restaurants without a bank card. The link between cash and liberty is clearly made when banks can limit customers’ use of cash or close down their accounts because they disapprove of their freedom of speech. No one can easily function without a bank account, forcing everyone to submit to owning a smartphone or making cashless payments. It is a discouragement to economic activity as many traders have to accept cash as part of their daily lives. Nigel Farage calls for cash to be protected (Image: Getty) Once customers submit to digital currency it only makes them more vulnerable to the diktats of government or big business. In Canada in February 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government shamefully froze the accounts of hundreds of truckers connected to the Freedom Convoy protests against Covid-19 restrictions that shut down roads. They even froze the accounts of people making donations to the protestors. Interventions like this are akin to Communist China having complete control over everyone’s life, ensuring they all sing from the same hymn-sheet. That something like this could never happen in Britain was blown apart by Nigel Farage having his Coutts account shut down because of his pro- Brexit political views. That very little has been learned from this incident is clear from Coutts’ owner NatWest deciding to limit cash deposits and withdrawals from September. Claiming it is to protect its customers from fraud, it is deeply discriminatory not only to cash-handling traders but also older generations. Coutts shut down Farage’s bank (Image: Getty) NatWest virtue signals that it is inclusive but its actions are anything but that and full of prejudice. My disabled 90-year-old mother does not have a smartphone or access to Internet banking and is deeply dependent on my drawing out cash for her on a regular basis. Why should she be forced to buy a smartphone or computer at an age when she does not want to master another new skill and one that only makes her vulnerable to internet scamming? This blatant prejudice is repeated by left-leaning councils across the country that want to bully older motorists into downloading their apps to pay for parking. Lib-Dem Sutton in southwest London is charging motorists £3 an hour if they want to pay in cash as opposed to £2 an hour if they download their app. At a time when councils should be encouraging everyone to visit their high streets and support their local shops, this is naked discrimination against those who prefer to be low-tech. And smartphones don’t always work. ‘The technology is far from infallible,’ says RAC spokesman Rod Dennis. ‘If the signal fails or isn’t strong enough, drivers who have made every effort to pay to park are left in an impossible position.’ The fact is that anti-car councils are using this to discourage older people from driving into town centres for ecological reasons, using the same tactics that banks do to nudge us towards a cashless society whether we want it or not. It is all about gaining greater control over every one of us—making us more compliant to institutions that have moved on from merely doing business with us to making judgments on our personal views. By embracing a so-called moral dimension in their businesses they are forcing us to comply with their Woke visions of the world. It is a very worrying trend and Nigel Farage is to be saluted for picking a fight with the banks that are leading this charge towards subservience. Cash is freedom not to be monitored or bullied. As the latest poll shows, there are Red Wall votes to be had for any politician who has the guts to stand up in defence of cash.